No one knows how just many Pearl Harbor survivors are still left among us, but there aren't many. According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, of the 70,000 sailors and soldiers stationed at Pearl Harbor only 5,000 remain alive.

On the USS Arizona alone, only 334 sailors survived the attack, and as of this year the association that coordinates reunions for the Arizona survivors can only account for 34. Nine of those men and their families will attend ceremonies today in Hawaii.

The survivors of Pearl Harbor are now in their late 80's and early 90's, but most all remember that "day of infamy" sixty-five years ago as if it were yesterday. In an interview with World War II Magazine, Donald Stratton, one of the survivors aboard the Arizona who was badly injured, describes the scene on December 7, 1941 as he and his fellow sailors realized they were under attack and scrambled to man their battle stations.

Stratton: It was all happening very quickly and I didn't have much time to think. We were firing. There were only 50 rounds of ammunition in the ready box behind each gun, and I could see that some of the crews had to break the locks off the boxes to load their guns. We were firing at the planes -- more or less at the high altitude bombers. We knew that the torpedo bombers and the dive bombers would be covered by the .50-caliber machine guns. We worried about the high altitude bombers, [but] we couldn't reach them. Our shells were bursting before they ever reached their altitude.

WWII Magazine: At approximately 8:10 a.m., Arizona was hit by an 800-kg armor-piercing bomb just forward of No. 2 turret. The bomb penetrated the ship's deck and went off a few seconds later in the forward powder magazine. The subsequent blast gutted the ship, and the foremast and forward superstructure began to collapse. What do you remember of this blast?

Stratton: We were hit once before -- aft on top of No. 3 turret -- and it bounced over the side. One went through the afterdeck and didn't explode. Then one hit up above on the starboard side -- it was big. It shook the ship like an earthquake. Then all at once there was a big explosion, which just raised the ship pretty near clear up out of the water and then back down. There was a ball of flame that went about 500 to 600 feet in the air, and it just engulfed the whole foremast up there where we were and the whole bow of the ship.

WWII Magazine: What happened inside the director at this point?

Stratton: It just rattled us around like we were inside of a tube or something. As soon as I came to my senses, I tried to hide under some of the equipment to keep away from the blaze, but I still got burned. The fire came right into the director.

WWII Magazine: Did you or anyone else try to escape the fire by going outside onto the platform?

Stratton: No, we stayed in there for a little protection. A couple of the people in the director jumped out and I never did see them again.

WWII Magazine: How long was it before you went onto the platform?

Stratton: When the fire kind of squelched down a little bit. There was a little sea breeze that blew the smoke away. The fire control director and I got out on the platform. All the deck...inside of the charthouse and the ready boxes: Everything was red-hot. We couldn't lay or sit down.

WWII Magazine: From your director, you were one of only two survivors of the blast. Were you injured?

Stratton: Yes. I knew I had been burned and was in terrible pain. My legs were burnt from my thighs clear to my ankles. My T-shirt had caught on fire, and my back, both my arms and left side were burned pretty bad -- so was my face. All the hair on my head was burned off, and part of an ear was gone.

WWII Magazine: Could you see what was happening below you on the rest of the ship?

Stratton: [Pause.] I'm not going to say anything. That was so terrible I don't even want to say anything about it.

Take a moment today and honor the men who survived to tell the tale of Pearl Harbor, as well as those who did not. It's the very least we can do. And if you happen to be someone lucky enough to know one of these remarkable heroes, please give their hand an extra shake today and deliver a four word message from those of us who wish we could do it in person: we won't ever forget.

--------------------------------------------

More stories from around the country on Pearl Harbor:

The Baltimore Sun reports on a ceremony for survivors that will take place in Annapolis dedicating a bridge at the Severn River as the Pearl Harbor Memorial Bridge. Eighty-eight year old Eugene H. "Dutch" Albert told the paper: ""It will be one of the greatest things in my life, really. I'm one of those people who hope that Pearl Harbor will never be forgotten."

The Miami Herald interviewed 85 year-old Mervyn Ames who experienced the attack from the deck of the USS Allen.

The Deseret News: "Army Air Corps 2nd Lt. Emmett Smith Davis, 22, was sound asleep shortly before 8 a.m. in an officers' club 12 miles from Hawaii's Pearl Harbor 65 years ago when a lieutenant shook him and yelled that the Japanese were attacking."

The San Antonio Express-News runs excerpts from the diary of the wife of a soldier stationed at Pearl Harbor on December 7.

The New York Times has a special section on the salvaging of Pearl Harbor.

The Washington Post has an article about how scientists are trying to prevent some 500,000 gallons of fuel still trapped inside the sunken USS Arizona from spilling out and contaminating the harbor.